Child life specialists serve as a dedicated member of the health care team in helping the child feel more comfortable during the emergency visit.³³

Examples of contributions by child life specialists can include:³⁴

• Help decrease anxiety and pain perception using developmentally appropriate education and preparation to patients and families;
• Teach the child and staff simple distraction techniques, deep breathing, progressive relaxation or guided imagery;
• Help the child to develop and execute coping plans during difficult events in the ED;
• Educate the child about the ED environment and his or her diagnosis;
• Support family involvement in the child’s care.

Conclusion

Management of pain in the pediatric population during an emergency visit can often be over- looked by the care provider. However, first taking the time to assess pain will allow for appropriately addressing the pain. The roots of pain are psychological, somatic and social. There are many ways to address relieve pain in children provided that the caretaker thinks “outside the box.” Furthermore, a large portion of pediatric pain management requires anxiolytic supplementation to pharmacotherapy. Pediatric pain management continues to be an important area of research, as the emergency department can be a scary and painful place for any child. The astute emergency physician must be aware of pediatric pain and should be willing to try a multifactorial approach in order to mitigate pain for the emergency department’s youngest patients.

Dr. Ahn is the associate program director for the University of Chicago Emergency Medicine Program. He can be reached at jamesahn@uchicago.edu.

Dr. Kosoko is a postdoctoral fellow in pediatric emergency medicine and global health at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital.

She practices in Houston and can be reached at aakosoko@texaschildrens.org.

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